Making Tuesday Fun Since 2006!

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--- ESPN's Bruce Feldman lists the best games he's ever seen (in person).

Looking at the list, he's been fortunate enough to have attended four of the best college football games in the last decade or so although I never really felt Ohio State/Miami in 2003 was actually a high quality game.  The tension and drama stirred people's emotions but the on field performance was more atrition than championship football.

Also: Friday Mailbag.  Doubting the top Big Ten teams, the cult of Penn State football, Phil Fulmer's job security, Houston Nutt's job security and Florida State's quarterback play.

--- ESPN's Ivan Maisel says Colorado/Michigan in 1994 was the best game he's witnessed.

In the crowded visiting locker room after the game, the young Colorado quarterback and receivers coach explained the play. Months later, Rick Neuheisel would take over for the retiring Bill McCartney. On that day, he was still known better for taking UCLA to the Rose Bowl a decade or so before.

The Buffs practiced the play every Thursday. They had tried it on the last play of the half, and Winters intercepted the pass in the end zone.

At halftime, Neuheisel went over the fundamentals of the play with his players again. Westbrook, at 6-foot-4, was supposed to tip the ball. Instead, Anderson tipped it out of the hands of Winters, Westbrook caught it and the 1990s had their play of the decade with five seasons to go.

--- ESPN's Pat Forde says last year's Boise State/Oklahoma game was the best one he's personally seen.

It also "destroyed press box professionalism".

No college football game has ever been won with a greater compilation of do-or-die daring and outright trickeration. (Or, if you will, desperation.) When Boise hoodwinked the Sooners in triplicate, it marked the ultimate in gusto football. It was straight sandlot.

And it worked. The execution was so flawless (under immense pressure) that you'd think Boise practiced this stuff as often as the off-tackle handoff.

Truth is, the Broncos did practice the hook-and-lateral every week in their final workout the day before games. Mostly because it was fun, and the players enjoyed it. Not because they were good at it.

"It never works," offensive coordinator Bryan Harsin said. "Ever."

Also: Louisville's remarkable transformation in little more than ten years under Athletic Director Tom Jurich.

The man is a maven at hiring coaches and completing projects.  It goes beyond the big sports, as Louisville also placed seventh in last weekend's NCAA outdoor track championships.  Highly recommended read.

--- CBS Sportsline's Dennis Dodd says Louisiana prep legend Joe McKnight left a storm behind in choosing to attend USC and not homestate LSU.

It's silly to talk about an NFL career or even a Heisman, because McKnight doesn't. His college choice followed a pattern that was developed at Curtis. The kid is neither selfish nor afraid of competition. He carried the ball a total of 81 times his last two years of high school. Part of that had to do with hurricanes, which caused McKnight to miss half a season in 2005. Part of it had to do with the character that was nurtured in school.

Curtis' father John founded the non-denominational Christian school in 1962. Since 1975, it has won 21 state titles. Even though his current coach knew McKnight was something special from about the fifth grade on, there has been no rush. The budding star played mostly defense his first two seasons in high school.

"He is a superstar who played within a team concept," Curtis said. "Joe was not the featured player on this team."

Also: Vanderbilt's unusual approach to athletics and academics is paying dividends.

"Instead of trying another athletic director," [Vanderbilt Chancellor Gordon] Gee said, "we decided to explode the whole thing. The tolerance level was probably higher than at other places."

Forty-five months after Gee blew up the department, Vanderbilt athletics are actually better -- if not better understood. In September 2003, Gee put all teams under the purview of Student Life and University Affairs. That's the same office that oversees intramurals.

The jokes about football fighting for funds with the Frisbee golf team have died down.

Also: Indiana and ailing coach Terry Hoeppner have some tough decisions ahead.

--- The Sporting News' Matt Hayes looks into USC's crowded backfield and how they made that situation possible.

"You would think," says one Pac-10 coach, "one or two of those guys would see the numbers game and go somewhere else."

Why would they when they hear McNair, the ultimate NFL overachiever, constantly chirping in their ears? Here's a guy who played eight years in the NFL by doing anything and everything he could to stick. He was a lead blocker, a special teams ace, a third-down back. You name it, he did it -- and always had a roster spot when The Turk showed up.

"I know what these kids are thinking, what they're feeling about competition," McNair says. "When I was in Kansas City, we had Christian Okoye and Barry Word, and then we drafted Harvey Williams in the first round. Those guys were great friends of mine -- and I watched all of them clean out their lockers."

Well, to be fair, all those players achieved more in the NFL whether or not they had a longer career than McNair.  I'm not sure all those backs are going to put up with being ten Todd McNairs when some have the talent to be an Okoye and earn more carries.

Also: Inside Dish.  New Orleans must juggle three bowls and somehow keep the Sugar Bowl in the BCS rotation (interesting), Boise State should drive its winning streak to 24 games before meeting likely unbeaten Hawaii in the regular season finale and New Mexico State coach Hal Mumme's time is running out thanks to a 4-20 record and his failure to beat a discrimination lawsuit filed by Islamic former players.

--- The Sporting News' Tom Dienhart breaks down the I-A vs I-AA games.

I give credit to the Pac-10 for not taking the easy way out and scheduling a bunch of I-AA pylons. Check it out: The Pac-10 has just two games vs. I-AA foes, the fewest of any BCS conference. If any league deserves to schedule a few easy "Ws," it's the Pac-10, given the fact league schools are forced to fill nine of their 12 scheduling slots with conference tilts. A breather would have been appreciated.

Also: the best 57 games of 2007.

Also: Love for the little guys - Preseason top 25 non-BCS teams and non-BCS All America team.

Anyone notice that the WAC's gotten kinda, sorta, well - good - lately?  Relatively speaking of course, but the league has risen well above its other non-BCS peers.

--- CSTV's Trev Alberts answers reader mail this week about the fifth year of eligibility proposal, what coach other than Tom Osborne he would have played for and the lack of attention for quarterback Matt Ryan and Boston College.

I would have like to have played for the late, great Bo Schembechler. I had the pleasure of meeting him in New York when I received a post graduate scholarship. I was invited to an event that he and his wife were hosting and University of Michigan. This was before we played Florida State for the national championship and I still had a cast on my arm. But I remember him sort of seeking me out and he started talking and told me he appreciated how I played the game. We exchanged pleasantries and then he asked me about playing in the national championship game. I don't remember what I said, but at one point toward the end of the conversation, he had me by my tux, way up near my bowtie, and was almost in my face basically saying, "I'd better see you out there."

--- CSTV's Adam Caparell breaks down week III of the 2007 college football season.

Also: looking at college football records that might or might not be broken.

--- Rivals.com's Olin Buchanan notes hope for progress in the campaign to get more black coaches hired in college football.

I love this issue and strongly hope that real change is on the way.  However, the way we approach the issue is sometimes misguided.  Take for example Floyd Keith, Executive Director of the Black Coaches Association.

Keith pointed out that only seven men of color – six African-Americans and one of Latin decent – are currently head coaches at the Division I-A level, which includes 119 schools. That's especially disconcerting considering more than half the scholarship players are African-American.

He suggested that at least one-fourth of the schools in Division I-A should have black coaches.

"I don't want to put a limit on it," he said. "I think if we could fluctuate from about 23 to 28 percent that would be fair because half the people on the field are people of color.

"The NFL has 32 teams and six black head coaches. That's about 20 percent, and it should be better. But that's almost three times what we have in the college ranks. We should have more in college than in the NFL. The bottom line is there is a systemic problem in the process."

This is absurd.  Percentages and numbers should not be an objective.  I think we'll know the appropriate rate or number of minority/colored coaches when the college football world and its community of minority coaches is no longer talking about the issue or finds discomfort in it.  Right now, few are happy with the number and that's enough to know we need more.  How many more?  Who could ever know?  We'll know when we get there though, as enough minority coaches find success and create new and never-ending opportunities for their peers.  Quotas and rates are not the answer, though.

Who is to say, for example, that 28 per cent black coaches is enough ten years from now?  What if we have more than that, wouldn't it be a good thing?  What if we reach equilibrium somewhere lower or higher than 23 to 28 per cent?  I think it's far better to say we're not there, we're not close to being there, let's get to work.

--- Rivals.com's Steve Megargee says that the teeth have been pulled from many Big Ten schedules. 

--- The Dallas/Ft. Worth Star-Telegram's Wendell Barnhouse looks into the strange phenomena of parents naming their newborns after college football coaches and programs.

And all the fuss about baby names also has stirred up enough off-season passion to match the annual debate about the Bowl Championship Series. We allow Diana McMunn to have the last words:

"When you carry a baby for 9 months and have 25 hours of labor with an ineffective epidural then you can name the kid whatever you want.

--- USA Today's Kelly Whiteside and Erik Brady show that the Title IX battle in college athletics is far from dead.

Football is a cause for a lot of the foot dragging.  I just wish they wouldn't factor in football scholarships as part of the overall math, we'd be a lot farther along at this point and the wresting and now baseball coaches wouldn't be so upset.

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